(AFP) – Kamala Harris took her rapid tour of battleground states to Arizona on Friday, where she hammered opponent Donald Trump on his favorite issue of immigration, as the Republican used his only rally of the week to boost a Senate candidate.
With the presidential election day just three months away, Trump’s light schedule — a rally every four or five days — contrasts with the hectic program of an opponent almost 20 years his junior, and with his own vigorous campaigning in 2016. The 78-year-old former president has held just five rallies since the Republican National Convention concluded in mid-July, one fewer than Harris is staging this week alone. He has not announced any events for next week.
After stops in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Harris spoke to a packed stadium in Arizona, a racially diverse state along the US border with Mexico that President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020 by around 10,000 votes. While mostly hewing to the script she has used throughout the week, Harris sharpened her attack on Trump’s immigration record. “Donald Trump does not want to fix this problem. Be clear about that,” Harris said. “He talks a big game about border security, but he does not walk the walk.”
She cited a major immigration proposal that appeared set to pass Congress after long bipartisan negotiations, but which failed after Trump, wary of giving Biden a legislative win, came out against it early this year. “Trump tanked the deal because he thought by doing that it would help him win an election. But when I am president, I will sign the bill,” Harris said to cheers. “We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it, comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.”
Harris also returned to the topic of abortion, a key issue Democrats hope will carry them over the finish line in November. Arizona is one of several states that imposed restrictions on the procedure following the Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of the nationwide right to abortion. Trump appointed three of the six justices that voted to overturn the nearly half-century Roe v Wade precedent, Harris noted. “Now in over 20 states in our nation, there is a Trump abortion ban, many like Arizona, with no exceptions, even for rape or incest,” she said.
While Harris was rallying with over 15,000 people in Phoenix, Trump was holding his first of the week in the northern state of Montana. “I’d rather run against her. I think she’s easier to beat, I really do,” he assured the crowd in a speech that lasted more than 90 minutes after a late start. “I handed her the strongest border in US history; she turned it into the worst border invasion in the history of the world,” he later added. Trump justified his stop in Montana, which he is heavily expected to win, as an opportunity to wrest back control of the Senate from Democrats. Endorsing Republican candidate Tim Sheehy, Trump said winning this seat means “we’re going to win the Senate.”
The ex-president, who survived an assassination attempt at a rally last month, has bristled at questions over his campaign schedule. In a hastily convened press conference Thursday at his home in south Florida, he said he had been absent from battleground states because he was “leading by a lot and because I’m letting their convention go through,” a reference to the Democratic National Convention, which does not end until August 22.
Trump appeared on track to win back the White House before Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, but Harris has made big gains since replacing the president at the top of the ticket and announcing Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor, as her running mate. Her rise appears to have wrongfooted Trump, who dismissed her surging polling numbers as he held court in front of journalists at his Mar-a-Lago estate for a freewheeling hour-plus news conference. He complained about coverage of Harris’s large crowds and assailed her for avoiding interviews.
In a bizarre moment that made headlines, he related an anecdote about a helicopter near-miss that never happened, in which he appeared to confuse former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown with Jerry Brown, California’s governor for most of the 2010s. After Arizona, Harris heads to neighboring Nevada. Highlighting the momentum shift in the race, election forecaster Cook Political Report changed its outlook for both states this week from “lean Republican” to “toss up”.
– Robyn BECK with Natalie BEHRING in Bozeman, Montana
© 2024 AFP
